Contractor offers no-cost pavement-preservation demo and urges Sedalia to treat roads earlier

Sedalia — Pavement-preservation contractor Vance Brothers urged Sedalia council members to adopt more routine preservation treatments to extend road life and offered a no-cost demonstration to let the city evaluate a polymer-modified microsurfacing product.

Alec Vance, project manager and estimator with Vance Brothers, walked the council through common preservation techniques — crack sealing, chip seal, microsurfacing and cape seal — and showed national lifecycle-cost comparisons to argue that timely preservation saves substantial future rehabilitation costs. "If you use [preservation] too late, you're throwing your money away," Vance said, arguing that regular, earlier treatments keep roads above the public-complaint line and avoid costly rebuilds.

Vance emphasized quality control: calibrating equipment, designing mixes for local aggregates and sampling field output for verification. He noted seasonal and material constraints in Missouri and said some limestone aggregates must be blended to meet specifications.

The company offered to perform a one-block demonstration at its expense of a highly modified, polymer-modified microsurfacing product that Vance said performs in the low 50s on the Pavement Condition Index in testing and resists reflective cracking. "We want the right treatment on the right road at the right time," he told the council, adding that the city can select the test block and provide feedback on appearance and ride quality.

Vance Brothers also proposed that combining city resources with specialized contractors would increase Sedalia’s capacity to perform preservation treatments more frequently and cost-effectively.

What’s next: The presentation concludes with a contractor offer for a demonstration block; council members asked for details and input on site selection and timing so the pilot can proceed.